Category: 2008

2008 (MMVIII) was a leap year starting on Tuesday (dominical letter FE) of the Gregorian calendar, the 2008th year of the Common Era (CE) and Anno Domini (AD) designations, the 8th year of the 3rd millennium, the 8th year of the 21st century, and the 9th year of the 2000s decade.

2008 was designated as:

International Year of Languages
International Year of Planet Earth
International Year of Sanitation
International Year of the Potato

Weezer is notorious for being one of those bands that had a few great albums and then just pretty much flopping the rest of their career. They’ve been picked on enough so I won’t be cruel because at the end of the day I do like this band. But damn this album is just so incredibly bad. It’s as if they went to a frat house and just wrote lyrics with that audience in mind. It’s eye-rollingly corny, immature, and sometimes just plain stupid. Even a few of their slow songs really crap the bed, too. Miss Sweeney may be my all time most hated Weezer song ever created, like honestly what is that song? It’s fun for high school but does not age well at all.

Controversial statement time: The Raconteurs is the best project Jack White has ever done (White Stripers calm yourselves). Consolers Of The Lonely is an album with so much going on for it: garage rock, ballad, hip hop like vocals, it’s a blender of genres and styles coming together to make one delicious listen. I love love love this album and I wish more people were into it because it’s so damn good. Jack White is complimented nicely by the backup band while still being able to showcase his amazing vocals. The lyrics are really solid and fable like at times. This album deserves your attention and Jack White fans should be ashamed if this isn’t in their library.

So this is aging me a bit (more showing how young I am) but Narrow Stairs was the first Death Cab For Cutie album I listened to. My older brother was into The Postal Service and bought this album around the time I first started listening to them. I must’ve listened to this album 1,864 times (rough guesstimate), it’s one of the handful of albums that I can sing to word for word without missing a step. It’s a truly intimate and large sounding album that can hit a wide range of emotions for me. I will always have a soft spot for these tunes and even though many Death Cab fans think this is on their weaker side, it’s one of my favourite work of theirs.

La Dispute by all accounts should annoy the hell out of me, loud sounding, angry, strained vocals, these all typically grate against me. But for some reason it just doesn’t, I find relatability in the anger. I found the voice well rounded and interesting. The backing band equally fighting for the spotlight. I would not hold it against you for hating this album, by all means go for it. But it’s the right mix of emotional uneasiness and musical chaos to strike the right chord for me, Somewhere At The Bottom Of The River Between Vega And Altair (ugh shorter album name please) plays off like an angry but well communicated tantrum after a terrible breakup, take that as you will.

I absolutely love this album cover, there’s so much going on, it’s really rad.

Want to Own on Vinyl?:

Not really.

Final Thoughts:

The Grates caught my attention with their song Turn Me On back in 2011; I wanted to check out their older stuff so I added this album to my library. The thing with The Grates is that if everything is working as it should be, the music sounds absolutely amazing, but so often on this album they make a simple misstep and something just sounds off. Whether it be the vocals being a little strained, or a drum loop that just doesn’t get there, the album as a whole could’ve used a little more time in the studio. But the few songs that hit their mark are really fun!